The System Arrived Four Years Early, but the Anomaly Is Still a Juvenile - Chapter 126

Seeing the mix of confusion, anticipation, seriousness, and overwhelming admiration (a solid ninety percent) in Fang Mingyue’s eyes, Shen Ge knew her earlier question wasn’t meant sarcastically. She genuinely believed he could figure out how to use this device.

Shen Ge sighed, forcefully swallowing the “Are you fucking kidding me?” that threatened to escape.

The device was only about the size of a fist, shaped much like a common sci-fi movie alien communicator, very high-tech and somewhat similar to an Anomaly Energy Detector.

Shen Ge picked it up for a closer look and noticed a cover on the back, like those on battery compartments of toys.

“This thing needs batteries too?” Shen Ge pried open the cover. Inside was a piece of anomalous flesh about two fingers wide, wrapped in various coils.

Well, I’ll be. Anomalous energy is the primary power source now, huh?

Shen Ge tried pressing the buttons on the device’s front, but nothing happened. Noticing a dial on the side, he slid it.

A wisp of black anomalous energy mist slowly emanated from the front of the device, drifting towards the left front.

“Hmm?” This device was meant to break through overlapping spaces. Clearly, this wisp of energy was acting as a guide.

“Come on, let’s check it out,” Shen Ge said to Fang Mingyue.

Fang Mingyue wore an expression that screamed, “I knew Investigator Shen would see through its usage at a glance!” Her blatant admiration was honestly a bit awkward for Shen Ge.

This girl is unfathomable; even I can’t decipher her thought process!

Shen the Unfathomable and Fang the Fangirl followed the direction indicated by the device. Bypassing the commercial district, they found an Anomaly on the road between Haicheng Park and the snack street, gnawing on a human corpse.

The Anomaly was about a meter long and half a meter tall, with a rat’s head and a body covered in dark brown scales, resembling a “pangolin.”

It was hunched over a headless corpse, chewing on the stomach area. The internal organs were already hollowed out, yet it still buried its head inside the cavity, feeding.

Fang Mingyue moved to approach it with her Anomalous Bone Staff, but Shen Ge pulled her back. “Wait here. Don’t rush,” he whispered.

After speaking, Shen Ge slowed his pace and cautiously approached the Anomaly.

Watching him, Fang Mingyue felt a pang of helplessness. Investigator Shen must have determined this Anomaly is tough to handle and is worried I’ll get hurt, so he’s taking action himself.

She bit her lip, clenched her fists, and resolved to become stronger, to not always be a burden to Investigator Shen!

Shen Ge carefully approached the Brown-Scaled Anomaly Rat, frowning. Visually, its anomalous energy level was only Tier 2. What troubled him wasn’t its strength but… he was this close, and the system still hadn’t shown up to make its presence known!

Before encountering Fang Mingyue, Shen Ge had dealt with several Anomalies, including a Tier 2 one, plus the giant Anomaly earlier. The system had given no prompts for any of them.

He’d actually sensed something was wrong when he left the comprehensive building, which was why he’d been trapped in the overlapping space for over ten hours.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Ever since the system devoured “Formless,” it would “crash” for a while after devouring Trait-bearing Anomalies.

Shen Ge currently had five Traits: “Soundless,” “Motionless,” “Formless,” “Manifestation-Less,” and “Non-Ignition.”

After the crashes following devouring “Formless” and “Manifestation-Less,” Shen Ge had pondered if these Traits were special in some way.

If devouring any Trait caused a crash, why didn’t devouring “Soundless” and “Motionless” cause one?

At first, he thought “Soundless” didn’t cause a crash because the system had just awakened, but then he remembered the system activated after killing “Soundless”; devouring happened after awakening.

And devouring “Motionless” didn’t cause a crash either. Although he hadn’t paid attention to crashes then, that period was still the “one anomalous event per day” phase. Right after devouring “Motionless,” the Anomalous Car, Rat, and Cat events happened in succession, so clearly the system hadn’t “crashed.”

In other words, the idea that devouring Traits always causes a crash doesn’t hold water!
If he had to force a reason, the problem only started after “Formless.” So, after devouring “Formless,” “Manifestation-Less,” and “Non-Ignition,” crashes occurred.

Gulp.
Gulp.

While Shen Ge was still pondering the system crash, the Anomaly Rat detected movement behind it. It raised its head, emitting horrifying swallowing sounds from its mouth.

Shen Ge had wanted to get closer to test if the system would react. Now, interrupted mid-thought and test, he felt a strong urge to chop it into pieces.

“Fang Mingyue!” Shen Ge called.
“Here!” Startled by being called, Fang Mingyue stood straight and responded promptly.
“Restrain it!” Shen Ge said while sidestepping. The Anomaly Rat charged past him, hitting empty air.
“Understood!” Fang Mingyue immediately took out her Anomalous Bone Staff, extended it into a large bone cage that enveloped the rat, and contracted it, trapping the creature.

But the rat was powerful. Seeing the end of the staff Fang Mingyue held nearly wrench from her grip, she leaned against a nearby lamppost, changed the shape of the end she held into a hook, and latched it onto the post.

The mindless rat, obviously unaware that stepping back would unhook the staff, just kept ramming forward, tightening the trap further.

Shen Ge walked up to the bone cage. The system still showed no reaction, making further testing unnecessary. He took out the Black Bone Dagger and stabbed it into the rat’s eye.

Thud!
The dagger tip only penetrated an inch before being enveloped in black anomalous energy mist, which quickly began repairs. Shen Ge tried stabbing the brown scales on the rat’s body. They were quite hard; several stabs with the Black Bone Dagger left no marks.

“Interesting.” Shen Ge circled the cage, looking for a weakness.

According to the headquarters’ Anomalization Ladder based on “Anomalous Energy Content,” Anomalies of the same tier could vary greatly in strength.

It was like how Anomalies just after initial anomalization, before developing an “Anomalous Space,” were all classified as “Tier 1.” Since the individual’s strength before anomalization affected its strength after, theoretically, an Anomaly Rat couldn’t beat an Anomaly Wolf, Lion, or Tiger.

As anomalous events increased, researchers delving deeper discovered that after initial anomalization to Tier 1, two types emerged:

One type strengthened its own physical body—the “Self-Healing” type. The other saw its anomalous energy evolve various abilities—the “Special” type.

For example, anomalous energy providing “bulletproof” defense, morphing into “anomalous energy tentacles,” forming “carapace,” or devouring and fusing with other anomalous energy, etc.

Research found “Special” type Anomalies entered secondary anomalization faster than “Self-Healing” types and had a higher chance of becoming high-tier Anomalies.

After secondary anomalization, Tier 2 Anomalies generally developed Anomalous Spaces. Those of the “Self-Healing” type were usually just ordinary “sub-space states,” while those of the “Special” type were often influenced by their special abilities, developing variations or special effects.

This Anomaly Rat was clearly a “Special” type, its special feature being the fusion of anomalous energy with brown scales.

“Hardness!” Shen Ge suddenly realized why, hours earlier, he couldn’t damage the “border” of the overlapping space with the Black Bone Dagger.

It wasn’t that the dagger was ineffective; the Anomalous Space was simply too “hard,” exceeding the dagger’s destructive capability.

Bang!
A loud crash sounded as the lamppost holding the bone hook couldn’t withstand the rat’s force, toppling over and smashing into a two-story building nearby.

Seeing Shen Ge still studying the rat, Fang Mingyue clapped her hands together. A bone strip extended from her wrist, instantly forming skeletal armguards over her hands.

She grabbed the slipping Anomalous Bone Staff with one hand and punched the nearby wall with the other. With a few clicks, the skeletal armguard morphed into a bone claw embedded in the wall.

While Fang Mingyue struggled to hold the rat, Shen Ge calmly poked and prodded it with the Black Bone Dagger, seemingly researching something. Finally, he inserted the dagger into the rat’s eye and stepped back.

The skeletal armguard scraped against the wall with a grating sound. Just as Fang Mingyue was about to lose her grip, the resistance suddenly vanished; the rat had stopped moving.

Puzzled, she heard Shen Ge say, “Flip it over with the bones. It’s like a pangolin; the belly shouldn’t have scales. Use this anomalous energy dagger; it’s more effective against Anomalies. Stab the heart… You have 10 seconds. Be quick.”

“Understood!” Although unsure why the struggling rat had suddenly stopped, Fang Mingyue followed orders. She pulled the dagger from its eye, used the bone staff to flip the cage, and stabbed the dagger into the rat’s heart.

Immediately, the rat thrashed violently.

Fang Mingyue pressed her left hand against its neck. The front of the skeletal armguard morphed into bone claws piercing the rat’s neck, pinning it in place.

As her right hand moved to pull the dagger for more stabs, Shen Ge beat her to it, yanking out the Black Bone Dagger and stabbing the rat’s abdomen repeatedly until it resembled a honeycomb.

“Release the cage,” Shen Ge said.
Fang Mingyue complied immediately. Shen Ge pressed the Black Bone Dagger into the rat’s body, then switched to the butcher’s knife for an on-the-spot “dissection,” peeling off the brown scaly hide from its back.

[Host successfully killed a Tier 2 Anomaly. Reward: 100 System Points, Random F-grade Recovery Item x1.]
[“No.”]

Shen Ge shook the scaly hide, flicking off the black blood, rolled it up, and stored it in his backpack. This hide could even withstand the Black Bone Dagger; it would be perfect for crafting protective gear.

Meanwhile, the black anomalous energy mist emanating from the front of the space-breaking device wrapped around his left arm’s corrupt flesh began drifting towards the rat corpse on the ground, merging with its anomalous energy.

After the two energies merged, the device seemed to start “absorbing” the rat’s anomalous energy.

Beep.
Beep.
Beep.

Anomalous energy mist gathered on the device’s thumb-thick “signal line” at the front, then whooshed out as a black beam shooting into the air.

With a shing, ripples spread across the sky, and a transparent “glass” wall appeared not far from Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue.

The completely transparent glass was hard to spot, but the reflections on it were obvious, making it easy to see upon closer inspection.

Shen Ge approached and saw the wall wasn’t a single layer but several intersecting, overlapping layers. One layer had already cracked and was crumbling away.

Shen Ge immediately thought of a possibility: “It’s making the Anomalous Space ‘visible’? The collapsing layer must be the Anomaly Rat’s Anomalous Space?”

Fang Mingyue said, “So the device makes the Anomalous Space ‘visible’ by absorbing the anomalous energy of the Anomaly that created it? As expected of Investigator Shen, you saw through its usage immediately!”

“…” Well.
If you say so, then sure!

Shen Ge walked up to the transparent glass barrier with the Black Bone Dagger. Upon closer inspection, aside from the shattered rat layer, three layers remained. In other words, this was a four-layer overlapping Anomalous Space.

Just based on layer count, it was less than the six or seven layers in the Dongyu Village incident, and there were no high-tier Anomalies “guarding” it. Breaking through shouldn’t be too difficult.

Shen Ge tried poking it with the Black Bone Dagger, indeed leaving a small mark on the glass barrier.

According to the earliest method proposed by the Special Response Department to break Anomalous Spaces, besides having trapped individuals find the space’s weaknesses and patterns, the most direct way was causing spatial distortion through collisions using anomalous energy equipment.

Previously, this method only addressed symptoms, not the root cause, primarily because causing distortion through collisions had a success rate of over 70% when applied externally, allowing for multiple attempts.

Once inside, causing collisions had less than a 30% success rate based on tests, and only if the anomalous energy level surpassed that of the Anomaly maintaining the space.

Crucially, the duration and entry point of the spatial distortion were unpredictable, making finding the “glass barrier” from inside extremely difficult.

Now, with the detection device and the Black Bone Dagger, these two problems were perfectly solved, greatly increasing the success rate of directly destroying the Anomalous Space from within.

Shen Ge tried stabbing harder with the Black Bone Dagger. Judging by the damage, two layers were rated Tier 2 and could be directly destroyed.

Crack!
Crack!
A few stabs later, the second layer was destroyed.
Then the third.

The final layer couldn’t be directly destroyed by the dagger, indicating the Anomaly maintaining it was rated above Tier 2.

However, resolving three layers at once, reducing the overlapping space to just one layer, significantly saved Shen Ge’s search time.

After all, the entire Haicheng District was sizable. Just searching the streets would take considerable time, not to mention entering buildings to hunt Anomalies.

“Only one Anomaly above Tier 2 left. Find and deal with it, and we can leave this place,” Shen Ge said, turning to Fang Mingyue.

Fang Mingyue looked at the rat corpse on the ground. “Should we take this part?”

Even after death, Anomaly corpses continuously produced anomalous energy until it completely dissipated, when the Anomaly would “truly” die. This was why Anomalies had a chance to “revive.”

While Shen Ge could find an excuse to send Fang Mingyue away and sell the corpse for a one-time gain, he was very interested in the rat’s scales. He wanted Li Xiang to help craft defensive anomalous equipment from them. Selling even part of the corpse would make the scales disappear.

So, Shen Ge chose not to sell. However, the anomalous energy in that part of the corpse had been absorbed by the detector and needed time to recover.

To be safe, Shen Ge raised his hand, activated the anomalous energy armguard, and spewed black flames, burning the rat corpse to a crisp, further increasing the recovery time.

“Let’s go. This should do,” Shen Ge said.

Fang Mingyue never questioned or doubted Shen Ge’s judgments. She nodded, stored her anomalous equipment, and the two continued following the direction guided by the detector’s anomalous energy mist, searching for the Anomaly maintaining the space.

Late at night, after over ten hours of action in the blockade zone, even Shen Ge was tired. He and Fang Mingyue found a small supermarket to rest.

They ate some food, discussed the Beijing Anomaly Disaster and the Twelve Branches for a while, then Shen Ge told Fang Mingyue to rest first while he took the first watch, and she the second.

Though accustomed to Shen Ge’s habit of downplaying his selfless sacrifices and noble character, Fang Mingyue was deeply moved by his care. However, considering Shen Ge was key to resolving the disaster and needed proper rest more, she insisted she wouldn’t rest first.

After a few exchanged words, Shen Ge forcefully made her lie down. Seeing his displeased expression, she reluctantly complied.

Shen Ge glanced at Fang Mingyue trying to force herself to sleep and snorted inwardly. Just sleep when told. Don’t waste time chattering and delay my reading.

Truthfully, with Little Seven on alert, Shen Ge could sleep too, but he wanted to stay up until midnight to check the latest [Log].

The future “Formless” had successfully anomalized into a Tier 7 Anomaly. Whether the future Shen Ge succeeded against it or not would provide valuable intel.

Yesterday’s log (April 13th) mentioned the future Shen Ge and Luo Chenguang deciding to first explore the area around Tom’s Department Store.

Although Tom’s was utterly destroyed by the “Anti-Anomaly Missile,” causing the Formless Anomalous Domain to go out of control and transparentize most of Rong City, the specific terrain needed surveying for strategic deployment.

The method was simple: send drones and small probe robots for scans, then use AI to reconstruct the terrain map for a general overview.

Shen Ge waited these two hours to see the reconstruction results.

[Congratulations, Host, on surviving another day in this anomaly-ridden world. Reward: 1% Free Distribution Point, 10 System Points.]
[April 14, 2028. The area around Tom’s Department Store, utterly destroyed by the anti-anomaly missile, has extremely complex ground conditions, greatly hindering the probe robots’ movement. Terrain reconstruction is more difficult than imagined. However, drones were attacked during reconnaissance. Using image and sonic wave reconstruction tech, the attackers were confirmed to be transparent tentacles from “Formless.”]
[The Special Response Department changed strategy, narrowing the search focus. They identified the “mobile” Formless tentacles and used sonic detection and AI reconstruction tech. The reconstructed images were shocking… The entire block was already covered by Formless’s “tentacles.” Its size was beyond imagination.]
[The reconnaissance team worked hard all day but couldn’t find the “end” of Formless’s body.]

Shen Ge rubbed his temples. The future “Formless” was unexpectedly troublesome. It was indeed best to nip Anomalies in the bud before they grew.

However, rereading the [Log] from start to finish, Shen Ge noticed a key issue. While the frequency of anomalous events was increasing daily, it was still within the “controllable range” of the anti-anomaly organizations.

The Twelve Branches’ “artificial Anomalies,” aside from having extra arms for guns and extra heads for “insurance,” were essentially just anomalous energy equipment.

Even with their means to “accelerate anomalization,” could such combat strength really push the world to apocalypse in two and a half years?

According to the [Log], the streets were filled with Anomalies, humans survived only in bases, and had to venture out periodically for resources.

Even a major country’s central city like Takaguchi City in Japan had completely fallen, let alone smaller countries with little anti-anomaly capability.

The key was, once a Tier 4 Anomaly appeared, it inevitably caused an Anomaly Disaster. Currently, Tier 4 events worldwide were few and far between.

While Anomalies could rapidly anomalize by devouring each other, advancing tiers required exponentially increasing numbers.

And once they grew to Tier 7 like “Formless,” their gigantic bodies would be impossible to hide.

So the question was—

Where would an 8th-tier Anomaly pop up in two and a half years to devour Takaguchi City?

Shen Ge even wondered if it was like some monster universe setting, with many hollow worlds inside Earth hibernating colossal beings.

Seventh-tier, eighth-tier, ninth-tier, even tenth-tier Anomaly Kings! Once certain conditions were met, these powerful Anomalies would awaken and destroy the world?

Shen Ge quickly dismissed this. He could see anomalous energy with his naked eye. Wouldn’t such powerful Anomalies have “demonic auras reaching the sky”?
There was another possibility!
Shen Ge thought of the parasite-controlled humans he’d seen lately. By anomalous rating standards, these were also Tier 1 Anomalies after initial anomalization. If devouring them counted as devouring a Tier 1 Anomaly, using them to feed other Anomalies would be惊人 (astoundingly) fast!

“Seems like we still need to find a way to uproot the Twelve Branches in one go.” After much thought, Shen Ge concluded the biggest variable leading to apocalypse in two and a half years was still the Twelve Branches.

Anomalies could be strangled in the cradle while still young; the same could be done to the Twelve Branches!

“I wonder if I jumped onto the next Twelve Branches member during teleportation, would it take me along,” Shen Ge mused, his thoughts running wild.

Of course, this was just a thought. Shen Ge wasn’t crazy enough to test their teleportation function with his life.

Regardless, the Twelve Branches were now on his must-kill list.

Exhausted, Shen Ge stopped overthinking, tasked Little Seven with guard duty, and leaned against a shelf to sleep.

Smack!
He didn’t know how long he slept when a sharp slapping sound jolted him awake. Little Seven hadn’t alerted him, meaning it wasn’t danger.

Opening his eyes, he saw Fang Mingyue sitting on the floor, a bright red handprint on her cheek, biting her lip in annoyance, looking like she’d messed up.

“Paramecium, what are you doing now?” Shen Ge’s brain was still booting up, and he blurted out his internal nickname for her.
Single-minded, single-celled.

“It’s all my fault for sleeping so long, making you keep watch all night, even getting so tired you fell asleep,” Fang Mingyue explained. Waking up to find Shen Ge asleep against the shelf, she checked the time—almost 6 AM. She’d slept nearly seven hours.

Although she hadn’t rested properly for days, managing a few hours of sleep earlier thanks to her injury, she’d rushed into the blockade zone to deliver the detector without pause.

Her body and spirit were at their limit. If not for Shen Ge’s will influence (?) , she would have collapsed long ago. Sleeping seven hours in extreme fatigue wasn’t unusual.

But Fang Mingyue couldn’t forgive herself for such a basic mistake, making Beijing’s future hope keep watch all night!
This was a desecration of Investigator Shen!

Hearing Fang Mingyue’s “explanation,” Shen Ge’s expression became →–
The words “Actually, I slept not long after you did” stuck in his throat, feeling like saying them would be a desecration of his own image.

Dammit!

This is praise-killing, absolute praise-killing!

“Ahem, Investigator Fang,” Shen Ge said. “Health is the capital of revolution. Working constantly overloaded will wear you down. Especially since your injury just healed. Pushing yourself won’t help; it’ll hold you back. You’re a Beijing investigator, more familiar with the area. There will be many places needing your effort later. So, resting and recuperating is fine.”

“Besides, I had Little Seven on alert while I slept. Any Anomaly approaching would be locked onto, so it wasn’t dangerous. I actually rested not long after you did. It wasn’t as exaggerated as keeping watch all night. Don’t worry about it.”

Fang Mingyue was deeply moved. Investigator Shen is downplaying all his efforts and hardships to put me at ease. How noble!

Hmm!
I must pull myself together!

As Investigator Shen said, Beijing is my battlefield. I must play my part, not always hide under his wing!

“Yes! Investigator Shen, I understand! I won’t betray your painstaking efforts. You can rest assured!” Fang Mingyue said, staring at Shen Ge with determination.

Shen Ge: ?
Painstaking efforts?
What painstaking efforts?

Just as Shen Ge was about to voice his confusion, Fang Mingyue spoke first: “Investigator Shen, I didn’t understand why you called me ‘Paramecium’ earlier. Now I get it! You want me to aspire towards the light like a paramecium, unaffected by the dark anomalies, purifying this world like paramecia purify polluted water!”

“…” Sis, are you doing reading comprehension here?
You really are a paramecium!
“What’s wrong?” Fang Mingyue asked, seeing Shen Ge’s subtly strange expression.

Shen Ge struggled for a moment before saying, “It’s… nothing. Whatever makes you happy.”

“Okay! Investigator Shen, don’t worry. I’ll strive to pull myself together. No matter what dire situation, I’ll maintain a good mindset!” Fang Mingyue said earnestly.

Shen Ge facepalmed. This conversation was completely untenable.

Dawn was breaking. After eating and resting briefly, they left the store and continued following the detector’s guidance, searching for the last Anomaly in the overlapping space.

The original overlapping space had four layers. Yesterday, using the detector to find the Anomaly Rat, and with the device and Black Bone Dagger, Shen Ge successfully broke three Tier 2 layers, leaving one layer above Tier 2.

Overlapping Anomalous Spaces weren’t perfectly aligned identical zones but different shaped areas intersecting and overlapping, like the mathematical concept of “sets.” As layers were destroyed, the actionable area within the anomalous domain changed.

For example, the previous maximum range was the street two blocks from Haicheng Park. After destroying three layers, the range increased significantly.

Without the detector, finding the space-maintaining Anomaly would be very difficult. Guided by the device, they arrived at the center of Haicheng Park. In a wide grassy area, they found the culprit maintaining this space—

A nearly five-meter-tall monster composed of piles of green tentacles. Upon closer inspection, each tentacle was made of thumb-sized maggots clustered together.

Covering its entire body, this large Anomaly, visually estimated at Tier 3 strength, was slowly writhing, extremely disgusting.

Around this large green Anomaly, many Tier 1 small Anomalies gathered, their bodies also covered in disgusting maggots.

Among these Anomalies were the “Anomaly Rabbits” Shen Ge had seen before, and others of the same type, also clusters of maggots.

It seemed this was the birthplace of the parasite that turned humans into monsters.

Besides Anomalies, the wide grassy field was filled with unconscious humans, piled so high in some places they formed small mountains.

The large green Anomaly extended its slimy green tentacles, plucking people from the ground like a buffet and stuffing them into its mouth.

The low-tier Anomalies weren’t idle either, gnawing on corpses.

As they fed, the maggots on them slowly transferred to the humans, eating their flesh, organs, and burrowing into their bodies.

“Investigator Shen, this…” Fang Mingyue was speechless with shock. Despite experiencing many anomalous events, she had never seen anything as horrifying as this!
Even the Dongyu Village incident wasn’t this bizarre!

The number of unconscious people on the field was uncountable, piled upon each other, like a fishing net hauled onto a deck, full of fish.

Shen Ge frowned. “Look closely at the exposed parts of these unconscious people, especially their faces… They’re like the parasitized people we saw in the building.”

Fang Mingyue looked closely and indeed saw maggots of varying degrees writhing on their faces and bodies.

“I guess that green guy is the ‘parasitic Anomaly’ mother body that can control humans. It spreads the parasite to other Anomalies through some method, spreading it across Haicheng District. And the parasite-infected humans are ‘summoned’ here by it,” Shen Ge analyzed.

Otherwise, based on normal behavior after an anomalous event, panicked crowds would typically seek shelter in enclosed areas.

Like residences, shops, supermarkets—they wouldn’t gather in such an open place.

Therefore, this large green Anomaly must have a way to control the parasitized, gathering them here for its buffet.

This also explained why Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue encountered so few humans in buildings or on the streets.

Haicheng District had a population of millions. Not seeing people was abnormal; now they knew why!

“Investigator Shen, there must be thousands of people here. If we don’t stop this Anomaly, given its spread rate, soon the entire Haicheng District’s citizens will be parasitized!” Fang Mingyue said.

“More than that. Look at the artificial lake ahead, and that small forest. Unconscious people are everywhere. Probably tens of thousands are here,” Shen Ge said.

Fang Mingyue looked where he pointed. Indeed, the lake was filled with floating people, and fish were nibbling on the corpses.

In the woods, the distant paths—people were lying everywhere, many indeed.

The sheer number was one thing, but the key was, based on prior experience, these people were beyond saving; calling them “dead” wasn’t an exaggeration.

The thought of tens of thousands lost filled Fang Mingyue with grief. She wished she could skin and dismember that green giant Anomaly!

Gulp!
Gulp!

Suddenly, hundreds of tentacles on the large green Anomaly pointed skyward simultaneously, emitting thunderous swallowing sounds. As the sounds echoed, the maggots on the tentacles quivered.

“What’s it doing? Did it discover us?” Fang Mingyue alertly looked around. Aside from the large green Anomaly and the surrounding Tier 1 Anomalies, no other threats were near her and Shen Ge.

It seemed the green giant wasn’t calling its minions to attack them.

“Look!” Shen Ge patted Fang Mingyue’s shoulder, pointing into the distance.

Fang Mingyue raised her tactical binoculars. From the woods, a group of people slowly emerged, their hands holding bloody things, moving slowly, seemingly muttering something. Hundreds, thousands of voices merged into a mosquito-like buzz.

Their faces wore the same ferocious smiles as the parasitized in the building. They walked towards the large green Anomaly, climbing over or stepping over corpses on the ground, as if nothing could stop their advance.

“Tch. Is fresh live delivery not enough? Gotta have it raw too?” Shen Ge’s expression turned grim watching the green Anomaly use its tentacles to feed the living people into its mouth one by one.

Usually, humans treated animals and seafood as buffets. The role reversal was shocking, even for Shen Ge’s strong will.

“Investigator Shen!” Fang Mingyue pointed nervously into the distance. Shen Ge looked and saw more “survivors” appearing from the left and right.

“Let’s go!” Shen Ge stood up to leave, only to find parasitized people approaching from all around the park.

Thousands upon thousands. Even the direction they came from had some parasitized, likely gathering from both sides of the park entrance.

Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue’s position, near the large field, felt like being surrounded. Their only way out was to fight back the way they came.

“Investigator Shen, what now?” Fang Mingyue asked.

Without Shen Ge, facing encirclement, she might have tried attacking the green giant, as eliminating the source was key to stopping the parasitic event.

But if its true form was “maggots,” her methods, more effective against whole Anomalies, might be less effective against a maggot cluster.

Though steadfast in justice, influenced by Shen Ge, she understood living allowed greater contribution and wouldn’t foolishly seek death.

Shen Ge thought and said, “Since we found the source, let’s try to find some explosives and blast our way through. These parasitized have no attack power. We’ll break out at the weakest point and plan our next move.”

Shen Ge’s simplest plan was to find a quiet place to draw gacha, hopefully getting a tank and high-explosives to blast a path.

“Okay!” Fang Mingyue nodded.

They got up and charged towards their entry point. Shen Ge drew the butcher’s knife and Black Bone Dagger; Fang Mingyue prepared her Anomalous Bone Staff, aiming to cut a path with minimal noise.

The ugly, ferocious parasitized, seeing two live humans running towards them, grinned horrifyingly.

“Eat, eat! It’s delicious!”
“It’s a gift from heaven.”
“Hungry, right?”
“Have some. You won’t be hungry.”
“This is the most delicious food.”
“…”

They held lumps of still-dripping flesh and organs, but upon closer inspection, the flesh and organs were clusters of maggots.

Pop!
Pop!
Pop!

Just as the nearest parasitized were four-five meters away, their heads suddenly exploded like watermelons. As flesh and blood splattered, giant Anomalies extended from their bodies.

“Holy shit! Bro, did you guys from the Biohazard crew wander onto the wrong set?” Seeing the anomalized parasitized, Shen Ge completely lost his composure.

This was fucking Plaga parasites, wasn’t it?
No time to think. Shen Ge raised his knife and slashed, cutting down the parasitic Anomalies extending from the necks of the parasitized.

Simultaneously, Fang Mingyue wasn’t idle. Seeing more parasitized gathering, she equipped Anomalous Bone Armguards on both hands, extended her staff, and swept through a large group.

The two fought cooperatively forward, but the rate of killing Anomalies couldn’t keep up with the gathering speed of the parasitized.

Shen Ge simply snapped his fingers and donned the full-body attachment-type combat armor. He tucked Fang Mingyue under his arm and leaped away with his Anomalous Leather Boots.

Pop!
Pop!
The sound of parasitized heads bursting to grow Anomalies was the same as Shen Ge crushing their heads underfoot.

Just as Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue landed near the park exit, the thunderous swallowing sound echoed again!

Gulp!
Gulp!

With this sound, all the parasitized in the park turned their heads, in unison looking towards Shen Ge and Fang Mingyue’s direction!